Taxpayer Dollars to Study 5,000 Yr Old Mortuary, Male Prostitution, Ecotourism in Guatemala and More

Remember the dreaded earth shattering economy ending blight known as Sequestration? President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen Reid and Rep Pelosi all predicted gloom and doom if sequestration went into effect, which it did back in March. The Democrats claimed that we didn’t have enough money to pay for many important and necessary things like Border Patrol, Customs Agents, or even White House tours. A number of federal employees will be losing up to 2 weeks of pay due to forced furloughs.

If that doesn’t get your dander up, wait till you see the list of wasteful spending of taxpayer funds:

1. $98,349 given to 2 researchers by the National Science Foundation to study 4,000-5,000 year old mortuary sites in northern Oman.

2. $253,800 given to the Fenway Community Health Center in Boston to find ways to educate male prostitutes on safe-sex.

3. $300,000 given by the Department of Health and Human Services to help LGBT victims of domestic violence.

4. $167,660 given to the Farmer’s Market Promotion Program, part of the Department of Agriculture to help promote the farmer’s market in the Washington DC area only.

5. $657,900 given to the University of Connecticut to test a hypothesis of cicada evolution.

6. $286,000 given to Williams College in Massachusetts by the National Science Foundation to study the political dynamics of the Maya people between 600-830AD in Motul de San Jose, Guatemala in hopes boost ecotourism to the area.

Just these six items comes to a total of $1,763,709. Now let’s say an average federal employee being forced to take unpaid furlough days off due to sequestration makes an around $80,000 a year. That works out to around $308 per day. Those six grants and studies would be enough to pay for 5,726 days for federal employees. Figuring on 10 days furlough each, it would be enough to keep 572 federal workers from having to take any unpaid furlough days due to sequestration.

Which do you think is more important – paying our own people to do their jobs or throwing millions of dollars away on ridiculous studies and pet projects?

If you ask me, the people that should be furloughed without pay due to the sequestration are the people responsible for such wasteful spending, starting with the entitlement king and queen living in the White House. Don’t forget, we’re not only supporting the Obama’s in their extravagant lifestyle but we’re also supporting Michelle Obama’s mother who moved into the White House with the rest of the family. Sacrifice needs to start at the top, not the bottom.